Animal I Have Become
by xXxJazzy B. RealxXx
Summary: Inuyasha, a domesticated half-breed was betrayed by his loving owner Dr. Kikyo. What happens when Kagome, Kikyo's Veterinarian twin becomes a foster owner for the half-demon and later relieves him of Kikyo's collar that kept his inner demon dormant
1. Prologue

**_"Animal I Have Become"_**

**Disclaimer: **C'mon, do I look like I own Inuyasha?

_Don't make fun of me, but I was actually watching Animal Planet when this idea came to me. You know, one of those animal-rescue episodes. The concept of a traumatized dog from a previous master and then nursing it back to trusting another on the brink of hopelessness reminded me of Inuyasha._

_ This story stays close to the original Inuyasha, though. Bleh, you'll see. It'll be cute and sad. _

**Summary: **_The law of exterminating half-demons has faded since the end of the Feudal Era and repaired into a society where demons and humans may live amongst each other._

_However, the new laws may have saved half-demons from extinction, but not from captivity. Through study, half-demons, though half-human, have been proven to be more animalistic than demons themselves. In an attempt to 'save' the species, they have been domesticated into mute house-pets. The lucky ones, anyway. Their collars are designed to keep their demon blood dormant. _

_Kagome Higuarshi, a good-natured Veterinarian, believes that no creature should be kept from their equal freedom by an electrocuting collar. So what happens when she becomes the foster owner of an abused half-dog demon and relieves him of his own? _

I'm sorry the summary is so very long and very sucky, because that whole collar situation is the smallest portion of the story's plot. The real issues are between Kikyo, Inuyasha, Onigumo/Naraku and Kagome. But that'll be revealed in the chapters, so STAY PUT! SIT!

Oh, just so you know, the half-demon 'pets' don't act like complete animals at all. That'll all be explained later. I mean crap, Kikyo and Inuyasha fell in love! Lol.

**Prologue**

In the darkness, water laps gently against the side of something metallic. The sound it makes, a tempo of slop-slop, imitated the mild tides of the ocean's waves. The reek of debris and urine was unbearable, but...

Amber eyes that mirror the gold of the sun tremble open.

"M-Mister Dog-man, sir?" a small little voice shuddered. "Mister Dog-man, are you okay? Y-Your body's all covered in red!" the pitch was suddenly maestro-ed into happiness. "You're lucky Rin found you before the-Mister Dog-man, don't go back to sleep again! Mister Dog-man? Mister Dog-man!"

The eyes collapsed back behind dazed eyelids...

_'...Kikyo...'_

...

_"Inuyasha?" the memory of a beautiful woman tilted her face as her white lips stretched into a smile at both corners. A strand of glossy black hair slid off her shoulder. "Inuyasha..." she enunicated every syllable with dashes of love. "I'll be home from the hospital much later tonight than usual, understand? Perhaps early morning, I'm not sure."_

_A silver-haired man sat at the foot of the couch, bare toes scratching frantically at his collar. Once that annoying itch was gone, his harmless gaze found the empty brown one of the woman._

_"My patient, Onigumo needs much intensive care." The woman slicked a stray hair over her ear's frame. "You remember him, don't you?" _

_The pair of white ears twitched twice before narrowing down against the young man's head. He growled like a pitbull readying up for slaughter. _

_"Now Inuyasha, don't be so ill-tempered." Her humor smiled wider across the valley of her face. "Will you watch over the family's precious jewel while I am gone? Kaede will be here to feed you. Make sure no bulgars break in and-"_

_**BANG! BANG! BANG!**_

_The explosion of three bullets stripped through the loving memory and penetrated a tree trunk. _

_"Inu-**YASHA**!"_

_A mane of silver whipped around to let startled ocher lock with betrayed brown._

_"DIE, Inuyasha!" The very mistress with the cheerless smile and flowy, bone-straight hair had been possessed by revenge. _

_She angled her father's shotgun at the half-breed before gritting her teeth into a winch as he body reacted with a jolt. Red, red, and more red, red that looked black, pooled around her feet from her shoulder's torn skin. The woman withdrew her quivering palm, eyes burning over the memory of red that now stained her hand. _

_Tears bounced off her chin as she cried, "WHY did you BETRAY me, Inuyasha?"_

_The dog-human growled in a clench of confusion before sprinting off the moment she knelt for her shotgun. A parade of bullets whizzed past his collarbone. One buckshot grazed off the edge of his ear while another dented his collar. _

_"**INUYASHA**!"_

_"Inuyasha...I will always be with you, so you'll never have to be lonely again. Remember the feel of my lips to your forehead, for it was real." _

A tear accumulated between the squeezed black eyelash of the unconscious half-dog demon.

...When nothing but darkness befriended him, a choir of new voices interrupted the silence several hours later.

"Where did you say you found him again?"

It sounded worried yet delicately soft, like that of a young woman.

"A street-orphan claimed she found him half-dead in the sewer lines."

This one sounded masculine.

"He had a lot of bullets jammed in his body when we obtained him. Despite him being half-demon, he needs medical attention, so we leave that to you." Although this was indeed a woman, the tone wasn't as naively fragile as the other. "People often shoot at stray half-demons for sport."

"But we don't know if he could've been attacking someone, now do we?" - Opposed the same male.

"There's no blood other than his own on him! I ran tests, y'know!" - Defended the more innocent woman with a cord of determination plugged into her system.

"Right, right..." the male's surrender was reluctant. "Perhaps I should tend to Otis."

"And I'll round up the rest," the woman agreed.

All but the pace of footsteps banked his ears now. Soon enough, the aroma of something uncontaminated and sweet filtered his nostrils. Once more, the pair of faded gold irises exposed their unusual radiance. A center of blinding light caused the half-demon's temples to drum-roll.

"Ah, so you're awake, are you? How are you feeling, big guy?"

The mongrel growled in exhaustion.

"Well, not that you can talk or anything." - That naive voice again!

The grunting half-breed craned his head, squinting to see the silhouette of a woman being outlined by pages of white light.

"You lost a lot of blood there, but if we continue to nurse you back to health, you'll be perfect for adoption. After all, who wouldn't want an adorable doggy woggy like you?"

...He growled again. Her pep was NOT medicating his headache.

Her details then cleared, even if he were seeing double through the unfocused 'lenses' of his eyes. Her raven hair was thick and wavy, while her eyes remained rich and brown. The smile planted on her face was unmistakably wide.

_'...K...Kikyo?_' the half-demon's mind jittered, activating his inner instincts to lose the last crums of his sanity to protect himself...


	2. Heart's Conked Out Radio

_**Chapter: "Heart's Conked Out Radio"**_

**Disclaimer: **_Thanks everyone, for all your reviews and alerts! It makes a girl feel bubbly and full of purpose. Erk, dismiss any grammar mistakes you come across. I have such little time to write and post, it's kinda hard to squeeze in editing. _

* * *

Red...

Why had the world gone red?

He was only seeing a screen of blood-red pane his vision now.

Before he was seeing colors of raven-black and blinding light, and...

_'Kikyo!'_

He must protect himself-

"GRAH!" The now red-eyed half-demon reeled over the operating table, causing the woman to hurtle into the tiled floor.

"Wh-Wha...?" The woman whimpered up at the now standing half-demon, cringing with every joint-cracked hinge in his clawed fingers.

He looked absolutely different from before. The white of his eyes were a homicidal scarlet, his pupils slit and nichrome with cheeks bearing the markings of a tribal beast.

"N-no, please!" She entreated as she backed into a corner, the oak-chocolate of her eyes resembling that of another in her place.

**_'We won't let Kikyo deceive us once again!'_**

The half-demon snarled, foaming from the fanged mouth as he sprung to life with his canines-

"KAGOME!" A brown-haired woman swung the door open in a tornado of panic.

But instead of being stopped by this female officer, the half-breed was choked back by the restraining cord hooked to his dented neck-collar. He collided with the hard ground, madly teething on the cord in hopes of snapping himself free. This only activated the delayed shock waves to pitch through his body, electrocuting his system and frying his nerves.

The female that had bared a resemblance to his ex-mistress sprouted up faster than a daisy, a smolder of concern glazing over her eyes.

"Dr. Higuarshi, are you alright?" the female-officer aided the woman's side, high pony tail of stringy brunette hair tumbling down her shoulder.

"S-Sango, get that cord off him!" she demanded shakily, seeing the sparks fly off the half-breed's body while he yowled in excruciation.

"What? K-Kagome!" and Sango demanded shakily for an answer.

"Get the cord OFF him before he DIES!"

"But...! He's a half-demon! He'll heal quickly-"

Kagome brushed off her friend's caring hands and robbed her of her handgun.

The half-demon's blank red eyes directed on Kagome, canines clenched together to see her aiming the pistol at him. Her image shuddered between herself and Kikyo holding that damn shotgun. Rage emphasized the half-breed's demonic features as he roared at her.

With the most precise aim Kagome could master, she open-fired at the middle of the cord. Instantly, the wiry thread of death snapped in half. The beast knelt on all fours, his skin grilled brown and roasting. His collar sparked sporadically with leftover electricity.

Kagome ran over to the him without a second thought, though came back to her forgotten senses when he yanked up to meet her gaze with passionate vengeance. The silver-haired half-demon snarled through his elongated saber teeth, blood-shot eyes flashing between white and crimson. With his body rickety like chattering bones, he fell flat out onto the cool floor.

"Oh no," Kagome panicked and met his side at once.

"Ka-GO-me!" Sango warned, hurrying forth with a chain. "He's not safe without something restraining him!"

"Sango, he's in pain!" Kagome's unsteady fingers neared his shoulders. "He won't hurt me if he's-"

Inuyasha's eyes bolted open the second Kagome's touch fell over him. The half-demon spun around, catching the scruff of her collar.

"KAGOME!" Sango gasped to see the revenge-drunk beast lift Kagome off her toes. "Put her DOWN!" the officer fondled her hip blindly for her firearm. _'Shit! Kagome had it last!'_ She growled to realize that it was now at the half-demon's feet.

The mongrel stared deeply into the terror walling the young woman's eyes, but behind that skeletal wall was a gateway to something else...

Sadness.

Every instinct of nature that poisoned his blood told him to protect himself from those brown eyes.

His muscles contracted and the creases that clenched the skin of his forehead only tautened. A palm of white claws hauled up over her with impending doom.

_**'Kill Kikyo; she betrayed us.'**_

_'She saved me...'_

_**'She made us bleed.'**_

_'Any longer, I could've roasted to a crisp...'_

_**'Any longer, she will kill us once and for all!'**_

By now, Kagome was no longer sniveling. She read the conflict crawling under the skin of his face.

"Please..." she begged.

_**'Look at the wench, begging us for her own life. Kikyo only deserves the company of death!' **_

The half-demon growled further, his raised hand's muscles hesitating.

"Please don't seal your own fate."

Now, the persuasive serpent tongue in his head shut up, and the animal's body shivered in tremors of shock.

"If you kill m-me, the people in this building will kill you as well. I don't want to see you d-die or be tortured anymore than you already have been. Please, let me help y-you." Her eyes were dazzling mistily.

The half-breed could smell the saltwater filling her eyelashes. It was so strong, he could meekly taste the saltiness on the tip of his tongue. The fiend lightened his grip on the collar of Kagome's coat. His strained facial muscles relaxed from its unhealthy tension, but the face of a demon didn't change.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Just before he could make his choice, something prickly - like a splinter - was lodged into the side of his neck. Within seconds his knees buckled. He dropped the hostage young woman and toppled into a life-support machine, tables and tools clattering. The rigidness of the floor met with his cheek as his sight fogged over. The last he could make out other than drowsiness was that very same blurry face of Kikyo he encountered earlier.

_'K...Kikyo! Wh-Why did you...?'_

He collapsed into unwiling sleep.

_The Jewel of Four Souls._

_The Sacred Jewel._

_Shikon no Tama._

_"Will you watch over the family's precious jewel while I am gone?"_

_The hallway that faced the half-demon seemed to echo out his mistress's serene voice to him, tormenting his obsessed heart even more. His dog ears drooped._

_Why had that damn song caused his heart to cringe a little? That was his mistress's favorite number, but it was his most hated now. He'd never turn on that stupid radio again if he was bored._

_The half-breed's glare penetrated the wooden floor panels as he approached his mistress's bedroom. His waves of charming white whisked behind him, its trimmed ends practically sweeping the dirt off the floors with every step._

_Yes._

_He would watch over it with his life._

_He tipped his head down a bit further, his bangs falling into his eyes._

_He'd never betray his mistress's heart. At one point when they were put together under the same roof, his very intention was to kidnap the jewel. But things have changed. He didn't need the jewel to be happy or fit in._

_He had his mistress. His lonely-hearted mistress._

_The one who pronounced his name with love._

_The one who was just as lonely as he._

"Inuyasha..."

_The half-breed raised his head from his notions and stopped at the closed door to his mistress's bedroom. Hesitation was mothering his feelings at the moment._

_For some reason, an omen felt as if it were foreboding his heart. For some reason, it felt as if disaster was going to wound his life the moment his hands reached the knob of this door. __But he had to make sure the jewel was safe and sound. Just one peek shouldn't allow the omen to even catch a glimpse of him, if it were truly hiding beyond this door._

_He propped it open and slipped his head in between the doorframe._

_The half-demon went stiff-legged..._

_The Jewel of Four Souls..._

_The Sacred Jewel..._

_Shikon no Tama-_

_"Inu-_**YASHA**_!"_

Inuyasha awoke to the haunting scream that was pummeling his sanity. He heaved up from his curled pose, looking around with bags of stress under his eyes. The room was shadowy and hushed, blue walls closed in on him and shackles binding him.

Was this hell or the pound?

Oi, what was the difference?

Whatever the case, he felt like it was his fault. He wasn't sure what he had done, but he knew something was his fault.

Inuyasha, forgetting who had given him the name itself, retreated back into his coiled body. He closed his eyes, internal wretchedness spurting through him.

What had he done, exactly...?

He tugged at the metallic collar strapped around his neck...

The Tetsusaiga didn't constrict him when he transformed like it was supposed to. It had been passed down to him from his father through generations. Kikyo had redesigned it so that it only kept his inner demon quiescent and nothing more. But it seemed to be doing nothing at all.

His ears suddenly straightened on the crest of his head as voices rummaged around behind the door to his isolated room. He placed his weary gaze on the shadows under the door's feet.

"Are you proposing we let him _starve_ to _death_?" Oh, he knew that naive, pesty little voice.

"No. Matter of fact, that's not what I'm proposing at all. Dr. Higuarshi, what I'm saying is he's too wild to just waltz in there and expect him to show civil domestication - "

"Officer, I know what the consequences are, but he's chained down! How much more dangerous can he be?"

Inuyasha double-glanced at his current state. He most certainly was chained from the neck to the wrists, wasn't he? What stopped them from binding his ankles, then?

"I know what I'm dealing with here. I know you're worried, Sango, but understand..."

The silence at this point had the half-breed convinced the conversation was over. He collapsed back against the cold floor and ignored the rest of the mumbling taking place behind the door.

But on cue, that very door sprang open and was replaced with the Kikyo imposter.

Inuyasha's breast rumbled. He hadn't been able to get a good look at her before, but as she entered into the spacious room, he felt like clawing himself for even thinking she was Kikyo...

Her hair was shorter, with crinks of curls making up for its length. Her eyes were round and vibrant, instead of narrow and wise. Her skin was tan and buttery, instead of milk-white. Last but not least, her aura didn't smell like dreaded, eternal sadness shielded behind an emotionless stare.

"I've brought you something," her mouth hitched into a brief smile.

It was small, but not as small as Kikyo's smiles.

Inuyasha sat up a bit, just to be on the defensive side. Just because she wasn't Kikyo, just because she saved him, didn't mean she wasn't something to watch out for.

"Something to eat," she highlighted with a tone of delight that made the half-demon want to maul that smile right off her face.

Inuyasha glared as she bent down in front of him with a bowl of chunky meat.

"I'm not sure what you're used to, but..."

The handsome half-demon stared at the offering with a wince of annoyance. He glanced at her like she had lost a slice of her brain before slapping the bowl out of her hands with a snort.

"HEY!"

He snorted again and spun his gaze elsewhere, an indifference masking his face now.

Kagome's face reddened with volcanic anger. Just as she moved forward to yell at him, she took in the remote glimmer bathing his stare. She blinked under her bangs, head tilting sideways as they swayed in response. It was like he was looking over a ruined paradise he longed to repair, one diseased by pain and intoxicated by regret. A disaster invisible to those who had innocent eyes like hers.

"...Inu?"

Inuyasha immediately came back to the real world. He blinked widely at the human woman.

"Oh," she smiled nervously. "It's a name I made up for you. It means _dog_. Do you like it?"

The half-breed's ear twitched once despite his expressionless overlook. He closed his eyes and turned his back to her.

"Guess that means you don't..." he heard her laughy sigh.

This time, his left ear flicked. Intuitively he tipped his head up to give his attention to the distraction his ear had. The skylight that windowed the night sky above him was raining with veins of light. Were the stars falling?

"It's a meteor shower," Kagome enlightened.

Inuyasha merely glimpsed at her from under his eyelash.

"Beautiful, right?" Kagome shifted a tendering smile his way, this time, with her eyes closed upwards in a display of happiness.

Happiness...

In his company.

Inuyasha gave out a bothered snort and turned away from her to capture the falling meteorites with his eyes. For a moment, all his frenetic, stressful worries were thieved away from his heavy heart. For a moment, the falling lights in the sky were soothing him with a silent lullaby. For a moment, he felt a magic named calmness hug him...

"I wonder how proud or disappointed the stars are of us..." that girl's voice dragged him away from his magic.

He was even so guilty of looking back at her through a side-glance.

"I mean, they're forced to look down on every creature here on our blue-green planet. There's not much to be proud of. Down here, there are only specks of goodness and happiness left on the face of this earth. I'd vomit if I had to watch a billion stories of pain unfold before my eyes and not even be able to blink or help."

Inuyasha didn't even bother to shepherd his temperamental growl. Damn this wench for scaring away his magic!

She went on, never meeting his assassinating stare, "And at the same time, the stars are so lucky. Untouched, pure of feeling, beautiful. Even their home is gorgeous and vibrant. Sometimes I wish I could just fly up there and tell them not all of us down here on earth are all bad. Sometimes I wish I could live up there with them, even if I had to stare at how horrible the world's become down here. Sometimes I wish I could be pure of feeling and beautiful too."

Inuyasha's hardened resentment dissolved when he met the glitters of light that descended over their heads. His eyes shined in lust; lust to be with them, to be lonely with them. He wished he could be pure of feeling and beautiful, too...

"I'm guessing by your good behavior, you had an owner who loved you very much."

Now his heart went black and his arteries shriveled up like weeds.

Without answering, his fists clenched and his bangs hid the once-enthralled look in his eyes.

"Here you go, Inu."

The heavy weight of steel left his body.

Inuyasha broke away from his recollection to dive into a state of shock at his now freed wrists. He nevertheless held them together, as if cautious to see if the binds would reappear again. When they didn't, he flexed his fingers and rubbed the eaten-away flesh of his wrists.

"Hopefully you'll feel better now and not like some captured animal..." Kagome was still smiling. "There's a radio over there in case you like music. Lots of half-demons enjoy it. It soothes them."

...How the hell did he mistake her for Kikyo?

He watched under a forced breath of surprise as she stood and gathered the shackles. Her heels clinked against the floor before she opened the door to exit. Right before she could leave him to his wrap himself around tranquility again, her heart almost elbowed out of her chest to hear a soft -

"Keh."

Kagome spun around on her heel, caressing the unpleasant wrist-shackles to her stomach. "...What...?"

But he wasn't even looking at her.

No, he was looking at the skylight with wisps of silvery white glistening under the starlight. The shimmer underlined the illustration of his face, the numinous grief radiating off his empty eyes, the red Haori shredded and destroyed to explicate his hardships...

The half-dog demon looked lost in that deceased paradise again before turning on the radio.

Her chest deflated from its sudden anxiety before she brought herself to believe it was only her head speaking to her. Half-lings didn't talk. Years of domestication had muted them to be speechless, to be afraid, to be obedient, to be stupid.

Inuyasha soon fell into slumber at the peak of morning, wriggling and whining into himself like a terrified pup surrounded in his dreams...

_**"...I'm crying everyone's tears**_

_**And there inside our private war, **_

_**I died the night before..."**_

_The birds were late to sing this afternoon. The sun was setting fast over the crown of the Higuarshi rooftop, too. _

_**"And all these remnants of joy and disaster**_

_**...What am I~ supposed to do...?"**_

_A stray parrot that had escaped from next door found interest in eavesdropping on the empty Higuarshi household through the windows. _

_There was a voice singing this afternoon..._

_And it was interrupting the song of those twittering sparrows. _

_He had to thank it somehow. But where was it coming from?_

_**"I want to cook you a soup that warms~ your soup**_

_**But nothing would change,**_

_**Nothing would change at all.."**_

_- There it was again!_

_However, no one was in this narrow hallway that the window presented to him. He glided around the exterior walls of the house, peering into every window. The voice felt nearer._

_**"I wonder if this grief will ever let me go~**_

_**I wonder will this grief ever be gone...**_

_**Will it ever go...?"**_

_But lastly, he all but cheeped to find a glint of silver facing him from the far corner of a box-like room. He hovered closer to the window's barricading glass, now aware of the upright canine ears sitting on top of those silver locks._

_The parrot winded around to the other window, stretching his neck out to at last have a good look at the creature. _

_A creature it was, indeed._

_**"I'm crying everyone's tears,**_

_**I have already paid for my future sins**_

_**There's nothing could say**_

_**To take this away..."**_

_With the face of a human and ears of a dog, it was definitely a creature of some sort. Some type of half-thing. __Strange as this creature was, it was not the thing producing the lovely voice. The only thing it seemed to produce was the air of sadness, irritation and confusion scowling its face._

_**"I feel like...**_

_**I am the King...**_

_**of Sorrow~...**_

_**The King of Sorrow~..."**_

_The parrot's tongue clucked against the roof of its beak as he watched the 'thing' reach out a clawed pair of fingers and turn the knob of a music box. That noisy thing that his owners had in their living room. Almost instantly, the song shut off. _

_The parrot's crown arched on the peak of his head as he watched the frustrated 'thing' stand from its sitting position and wander off. _

"Will you watch over the family's precious jewel while am I gone?"

_The hallway that faced the half-demon seemed to echo out his mistress's serene voice to him, tormenting his obsessed heart even more. His dog ears drooped._

_Why had that damn song caused his heart to cringe a little? That was his mistress's favorite number, but it was his most hated now. He'd never turn on that stupid radio again if he was bored._

_The half-breed's glare penetrated the wooden floor panels as he approached his mistress's bedroom. His waves of charming white whisked behind him, its trimmed ends practically sweeping the dirt off the floors with every step._

_Yes._

_He would watch over it with his life._

_He tipped his head down a bit further, his bangs falling into his eyes._

_He'd never betray his mistress's heart. At one point when they were put together under the same roof, his very intention was to kidnap the jewel. But things have changed. He didn't need the jewel to be happy or fit in._

_He had his mistress. His lonely-hearted mistress._

_The one who pronounced his name with love._

_The one who was just as lonely as he._

"Inuyasha..."

_The half-breed raised his head from his notions and stopped at the closed door to his mistress's bedroom. Hesitation was mothering his feelings at the moment._

_For some reason, an omen felt as if it were foreboding his heart. For some reason, it felt as if disaster was going to wound his life the moment his hands reached the knob of this door._

_But he had to make sure the jewel was safe and sound. Just one peek shouldn't allow the omen to even catch a glimpse of him, if it were truly hiding beyond this door._

_He propped it open and slipped his head in between the doorframe._

_The half-demon went stiff-legged..._

_The Jewel of Four Souls..._

_The Sacred Jewel..._

_Shikon no Tama-_

_The fugitive white parrot branched on the limb outside the house was singing gleefully to itself, "I am the Kiiiiing of Sor-rooooow-"_

_The escaped pet choked on the lyrics squawking out of his voice box to see that same silver-haired creature squat down on the roof a few houses away. The parrot cocked its eye, vision honing in on the arrogant, venomous smirk on the creature's face. And it seemed to be holding something purple and shiny..._

_"Inu-_**YASHA**_!"_

_The parrot fled to the skies at the unexpected screech from within the house it had been earlier investigating. _

- The half-demon's eyes flunked open. He could feel the coolness of two single tear droplets pasted to the side of his face.

That was a dream collaborated with a flashback, wasn't it? Why'd he dream himself as a parrot seeing himself on top of a roof, while still being inside Kikyo's room? And that song...

Inuyasha bobbed his head up, seeing the grimy old radio at his side. He cranked up the volume, ears sagging at the intro of piano keys that juggled with his feelings.

**_"...Couldn't save you from the start~..._**

**_...Love you so, it hurts my soul~..._**

**_Can you forgive me...for trying again?_**

**_Your silence, makes me hold~ my breath..._**

**_Oh, time has passed you by..._**

**_For so long, I've tried to, shield you from the world_**

**_Oooh~, you couldn't face the freedom on your own..._**

**_Here I am, left in silence..."_**

His conked out eyes lifted to the auburn rainbowing the skies, a few stars still visible in the daybreak. Inuyasha inhaled the stench of his own gloom, reminiscing on Kikyo's sad, sad smile.

**_"I watched the clouds driftin' a-way~_**

**_Still the sun can't warm my face..._**

**_I know it was destined,_**

**_To go wrong..._**

**_You were looking, for the great~ escape..._**

**_To chase your demons away..."_**

Inuyasha's fingers gripped around his arm as he tucked into himself, claws involuntarily driving and ripping into his flesh. Blood filtered out onto the floor as the music thundered.

**_"I've been so lost since you've gone~_**

**_Why not me before you?_**

**_Why did fate, deceive me~?_**

**_Every~thing turned out,_**

**_So wrong~_**

**_...Why did you leave me?_**

**_...In si~lence...?_**

**_You gave up the fight, _**

**_You left me behind..."_**

Music -

"King of Sorrow" - Sade

"Forgiven" - Within Temptation

Also my inspirations for this chapter, other than "Animal I Have Become" by Three Days Grace.

I think it's obvious by now, or should be - Naraku set up the betrayal between Kikyo and Inuyasha. That dream Inuyasha had was a way for him to see that he was set up, even if he technically didn't have the eyes to see Naraku on that rooftop disguised as him. Of course, he's not gonna believe that little dream, but he'll find out the truth later.

Inuyasha _will start talking_, but that'll only happen when he trusts Kagome. It's only the second chapter, and trust isn't built up off ten minutes of each other's presence, so be patient. It's a big enough deal that he said, "Keh", lol. That's letting you know it's the first step.


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